Voter poll for AP: Sour view of economy fuels Davis recall

Published: October 7, 2003 8:00 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) Fueled by disgust with the condition of Californias economy, voters gave Gov. Gray Davis horrendous job-approval ratings and booted him from office even though many shared his views on such issues as domestic partnerships and abortion.

An exit poll for The Associated Press found Davis suffered significant erosion among elements of the base that helped elect him governor in 1998 and 2002 especially union members and Hispanics. Even a quarter of liberals and one in five self-described Democrats voted for the recall.

The survey found little evidence that Tuesdays historic election was affected much by news stories in the past week reporting that Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger had groped several women. Female voters split evenly on whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the action movie star, while men rated him favorably by nearly a 15-point margin.

The statewide poll of 4,172 voters, including Election Day interviews and a telephone survey of absentee voters during the past week, was conducted by Edison Media Research of Somerville, N.J., and Mitofsky International of New York City. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points for the full sample, larger for subgroups.

In an election sparked by the states fiscal woes, voters were split on whether California can resolve its budget deficit without raising taxes, the poll found.

Eight in 10 voters said the states economy was not so good or poor, and seven in 10 disapproved of how Davis was handling his job. Nearly half of all voters strongly disapproved, and among them, nine in 10 voted for the recall and seven in 10 voted for Schwarzenegger, the exit poll found.

Yet more than half of California voters expressed positive feelings about the states new domestic partners law, one of the measures Davis signed in the run-up to the recall. Two in 10 called themselves enthusiastic about the law, which gives same-sex partners many of the same rights and responsibilities as married couples, but about one in 10 said they are angry about it.